The Saudi prisoner awaiting death-penalty trial for the USS Cole bombing was tortured physically, mentally and sexually, an expert in torture treatment testified Thursday in a war court defense effort to get the captive better health care.
Dr. Sondra Crosby offered the diagnosis in open court in carefully choreographed testimony that never once mentioned that the accused Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, 49, got to Guantanamo from four years of CIA captivity during which he was interrogated with waterboarding, threatened by a revving power drill and threats to his mother.
"I believe that Mr. al Nashiri has suffered torture -- physical, psychological and sexual torture," Crosby said before the judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, cut off questioning for elaboration.
At issue is a defense claim -- Nashiri's lawyers describe it as medical malpractice -- that the captive's military doctors have not treated him for the trauma he suffered at the hands of the CIA. A military medical board diagnosed him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder last year. Now his defense lawyers want the judge to freeze Dec. 4 trial preparations until he is treated.
